Slow food fast

A heavy workload doesn't stop Nikki Golden from enjoying home-cooked dinners. She turns to her crockpot to turn out favorites like this mock lasagna.

Nikki Golden doesn't want to fritter away her limited free time peeling and dicing vegetables or slow-simmering her own stock, but oh how she does love walking through the front door at the end of the day to a fragrant, home-cooked meal.

Her solution: combining fresh and packaged convenience foods with ingredients that need some prep, into a much-used crockpot.

"I like to take as many shortcuts as I can," says Nikki, who works full time as marketing and communications manager for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. "I just don't have the time."

Though she could spend her weekends cooking for the work days ahead, Nikki declines.

"I would love to be one of those people who plan ahead, but I'm not," says the Arlington Heights resident.

Bags of pre-chopped broccoli or carrots, containers of pre-minced garlic and herbs, seasoning packets and mixes come together with fresh chicken or a rotisserie chicken from the deli. Rather than eating in restaurants, Nikki prefers having control over portion size and cooking method.

"A lot of restaurants make vegetables with butter," she says. "I use olive oil."

Because Nikki allots only 30 minutes to get out of the door in the morning, she prepares dinner the night before, "sometimes at 10 o'clock," experimenting with seasonings and fresh vegetables to create new dishes.

Like her grandmother, Nikki is not rigid about measuring ingredients.

"Most things turn out like an experiment," she says.

The ceramic portion of the crockpot goes into the refrigerator, ready to be plugged in the next morning before she flies out of the house.

"There is nothing better than to come home, the house smells good and you can just eat," she says.

Because her husband, Andrew, rarely eats carbohydrates she developed a mock lasagna for the crockpot with optional corkscrew pasta. The Kraft spaghetti seasoning packet is a flavor blast from her childhood, but you can substitute your favorite.

At college in Indiana, Nikki was the "only Jewish person anyone had ever met," so she developed a hearty chicken and matzo ball soup recipe and shared it with her gentile friends during finals week.

"My roommate at college, who is still a dear friend today, lives on Martha's Vineyard and complains that they don't sell the mixes for matzo ball soup and matzo balls," says Nikki, who delivers some when she visits.

When she was working the night copy desk at a newspaper in Louisiana years ago, Nikki created Mediterranean Couscous Pockets.

"We started at 4, and it would get really busy about 6 or 7; if I wanted to eat at a normal time I needed to eat one-handed while still working," she says.

In keeping with her need for speed, Nikki's recipes generally clock in at about 15 or 20 minutes of prep, leaving plenty of time for extracurricular activities like reading and knitting or walking and fishing with her husband.

Crockpot Lasagna

5-6 boneless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper to taste

2 pounds fresh, pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower mix, see note

1 pound packaged crinkle-cut carrots

2 medium zucchini, sliced

1 yellow zucchini, sliced

3 Roma tomatoes, diced or 1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes

2 red, orange or yellow bell peppers, sliced

6 ounces pre-washed spinach

2 pre-minced garlic cloves

¼ ounce basil, minced, see note

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 box (18.3 ounces) Campbell's Soup select Blended Red Pepper Black Bean or Creamy Tomato Parmesan Bisque

1 packet (about 1.5 ounces) spaghetti sauce seasoning

1 pound corkscrew pasta, cooked, optional

8 ounces shredded mixed Italian cheeses, or your choice

Put chicken or turkey in the slow cooker and season with salt and pepper. Cover with vegetables (see note), throw in garlic and basil. Pour spaghetti seasoning into the can of tomato sauce and stir well; add to pot with the soup, covering the veggies. At this point you can turn crockpot to low and cook 6-8 hours, or refrigerate overnight and cook the next day on low for 8 hours.

Serve over pasta, if desired, sprinkled with cheese.

Serves six.

Cook's notes: Try this with 2 pounds ground turkey instead of chicken. You also can change the vegetables to fit your palate. Look for pre-minced basil in the produce section of the supermarket.

Nutrition values per serving: 280 calories, 5 g fat (2 g saturated), 24 g carbohydrates, 7 g fiber, 36 g protein, 70 mg cholesterol, 710 mg sodium.

Chicken Matzo Ball Soup

5-6 bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed

14 ounces pre-cut carrots and celery

4 garlic cloves, sliced

1½ teaspoons dried, ground ginger

1 teaspoon Mediterranean sea salt

2 teaspoons ground pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder or 1 fresh onion, halved and sliced

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1-2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 package (5 ounces) matzo ball soup mix with matzo ball mix (4.5 ounces)

Garlic salt

Place chicken in large soup pot. Cut carrots and celery in half or thirds and add to pot with garlic. Fill pot with water almost to the top. Season with ginger, salt, pepper, onion powder, celery salt, garlic powder and dry mustard. Simmer on medium for 1 to 1½ hours, until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken from pot, remove meat from the bones, cut into bite-size pieces return to the pot. Remove garlic if desired. Add enough water to fill the pot to within ¾ inch from the top. Add matzo ball soup mix to the pot. Prepare matzo balls according to the package, adding a couple dashes of garlic salt. Place matzo balls into soup for about 10 minutes, turn over gently with spoon and cook 20 minutes more. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Serves eight to 10.

Nutrition values per serving: 160 calories, 2g fat (1 g saturated), 12 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 15 g protein, 35 mg cholesterol, 1890 mg sodium.

Mediterranean Couscous Pockets

1 box (5.8 ounces) couscous mix with garlic and black olives

¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Black pepper

10 ounces pre-cut, pre-cooked chicken (any type of seasoning is fine)

2.5 ounces sliced or diced black olives

6 pieces pita

4 ounces feta cheese

7 ounces hummus, any flavor

Make the couscous according to the directions, but add ¾ cup lemon juice with the water; season with pepper.

While that's steaming heat 3 tablespoons lemon juice in a sauté pan; add chicken and olives and cook, about 10 minutes. Season with pepper. Mix chicken and olive mixture into couscous. Fold in feta.

To serve: Spread hummus on a piece of pita, top with chicken and couscous mixture.

Serves six to eight.

Nutrition values per serving: 530 calories, g fat ( g saturated), g carbohydrates, g fiber, g protein, mg cholesterol, mg sodium.